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Are you fat and unfit, and looking to start a fitness or weight loss program? There are probably millions of people worldwide who are overweight, unfit, and seriously want to change their body structure. If you are in this situation, you will be wondering how and where to begin with fitness. This can be a daunting thought!

In many cases, this body transformation will never even get started because the “would-be body transformer” will not know where to start.

I have some valuable advice for you! I am not going to tell you that it is easy and that you can do it overnight with a magic pill or treatment of the sort (unlike most other websites that you have probably stumbled upon). But I am going to give you some solid advice that I know will ACTUALLY help you.

 

Make It a Lifestyle Choice; Not a Fad

I think you probably know deep within that it is not as easy as many adverts for fat loss products will have you believe. Try and think of your new decision as a long term goal that you can take small steps towards achieving every day. This approach is backed up by most (if not all) of the successful people in the world today.

I don’t just mean the successful guys who successfully swapped fat 4 fit; I also mean the self-made millionaires, the Olympic athletes, and the guy who learned to overcome his speech impediment — the list goes on.

One of the biggest reasons that people don’t get their results is that they look at how much work they still have to put in and look for shortcuts or “quick fixes” rather than looking at how far they have gone already.

The whole point of this website is to get people to believe in themselves and help them to get to where they want to be with regards to health and fitness.

So, the sooner that you understand that this is a long term choice, a lifestyle choice, the better off that you will be, and the sooner you will start to make good progress with fitness and weight loss. (If you haven’t read my story, you can read it here)

 

Decide and Tell

First of all, YOU should make the decision. Decide that you are going to lose your weight and get your results. This may sound obvious, but, once you commit to your decision, you will have your mindset in the right position. Your mind-set will play an enormous part in your success.

A great tip to help you commit is to tell everyone that you know. By doing this, you are putting a bit of pressure on yourself. People will know what you are doing and they will support you. The further you get, the better your results become, the more encouragement that you will receive and the harder it will be for you to stop achieving.

Just like the effect of a snowball! Except that you won’t be getting bigger. So, tell your partner, tell your friends and family. Facebook it, tweet it, blog it, just do whatever you can to get the word out.

Make one small change per week. Instead of deciding that, as of tomorrow, you are going to eat no fatty or sugary food, you are going to start to work out twice every day, you are going to cycle to work instead of driving… you should consider making smaller changes instead.

Remember that you can’t get good results overnight! If you did make all of these changes, you would probably see some results in a week or two, but, from my experience as a fitness coach in this field, I would witness this kind of dedication for only a short time and then the energy and motivation to get results would fizzle out.

What happens? The trainer’s enthusiasm would turn to despondency, and the changes and hard work would be seen as a major inconvenience to them. More often than not, small changes would be made in the wrong direction with the end result being the starting point again.

If this happens, it’s even harder to start the second time!

“I’ll just miss this training session today and pick it up again tomorrow.”

“One visit to the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet isn’t going to hurt.”

So, rather than jumping into a massive lifestyle change, just make a small change per week. Remember that you are in it for the long haul and you do want your results to last.

Try eating half of the food portions that you normally eat in one week; the next week, carry on with this regime. You can also try doing gently exercises a few times per week and build it up like that.

It will be a good idea to plan your small changes about four weeks in advance, so that you are ready for it and also understand the impact that the next small change will make.

 

Get Up If You Fall!

This is another biggy! It is very important to understand that if you have not done this kind of thing before (or maybe you have but always ended up not hitting your goals for whatever reason), you are very vulnerable at the beginning of your journey.

You are vulnerable to your body’s cravings, your own self-doubt and unseen negativity from everyday interaction with other people. Due to this, you may slip and crumble under the pressure.

But this is okay!

Do not think that one fall has caused you to undo all of your good works. This also happens a lot. One slip and I have seen people go right back to square one.

If you crack and have an all-out hour binge on cakes and donuts, don’t let this stop your progress. You need to take stock, realize that it didn’t help you, know that you could have survived without it and think twice next time.

Why let one silly mistake kill your dream and destroy your goal? If you fall, get back up! Start fresh the next day. Just keep going, keep making your small changes and you will get there.

A great way to look at this is, if you have done 90% good things in your day, that is not outstanding but it is still good; aim for 100% the next day. One bad meal or missed workout won’t make you fat, just like one good meal or workout won’t make you thin! But consistent good meals and workouts will get you fit and lighter, just like consistent bad meals and no workouts will get you overweight and unfit.

If any of this sounds familiar enough to you and you can relate to it, good! If you can get your head around these three tips and follow them to the letter, you are on the right path. Forget quick fixes. I have said this before on many other articles that I have written: Fitness, weight loss and health are lifestyle choices; not just small phases of “motivation to change.”

The longer that you practice your small changes, the more you will enforce good habits for yourself that will become harder to break, making the whole business a lot easier. I hope that this article has been useful to you and I will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

Here are some other related posts for further reading:

Fat Loss FAST: 3 Weight Loss Techniques to Avoid

Healthy Snack Foods For Weight Loss

How To Boost Your Metabolism In 3 Simple Tricks!

Good luck, and let me know how you get on!

Jim